Cash once used to prop up the lifestyles of Australia's criminals will be awarded to the same authorities behind their downfalls.
The Abbott government has plucked out $2.9 million from a Commonwealth criminal confiscated assets account to help maintain a police taskforce targeting Sydney's waterfronts.
Operation Polaris has seized a 115 tonnes of drugs and precursors from Sydney's waterfronts, including ports, since it formed in 2010.
The multi-agency taskforce targets organised crime at the state's sea cargo ports.
Among the seizures has been 75kg of pseudoephedrine and 61kg of cocaine.
There have also been 62 arrests, including those of waterfront workers, over the past four years.
NSW Police Acting Commissioner Nick Kaldas says the $2.9 million in funding will keep the operation going.
"It certainly allows us to continue and slightly expand the numbers on deck," he told reporters on Wednesday.
Taking money from criminals to catch more suits Mr Kaldas.
"I see it as justice really, not an irony," he said.
Australian Federal Police Acting Deputy Commissioner Operations Kevin Zuccato said the methods people use to conceal drug shipments are sophisticated.
"Concealments in containers but also in small vessel importations," he said.
"Sometimes it's secreted in the actual hull of the vessel itself and it is very difficult to extract."
Share
